But you re not dead, not as long as your soul remains unbroken
by That-One-Girl-Behind-You
Summary: No one really remembers when it happened, but everyone knows they used to call them by a different name before they settled on the one they use now. Calling them Severed makes them victims, and it s hard to think of them as such when they sink their bloody fingers into your daemon and bite down. Basically Avengers daemon!verse in a zombie apocalypse. It gets explained, trust me.


**FULL DAEMON LIST AT THE BOTTOM**

In the His Dark Materials universe, a Daemon is a physical manifestation of one´s soul. Children´s daemons can freely change form, but will settle at a given moment (Commonly after puberty, but it can also happen at a younger age due a remarkable event. Even once settled, the daemon can change form again due to a considerable trauma, but this is uncommon.) taking the form of an animal that represents their human´s personality or true nature. A daemon is commonly the opposite gender as their human, those with a same gender daemon are usually thought to be special in some way. Although daemons are an entity dependant of their human, they´re sentient and capable of speech, however, talking or staring directly at another person´s daemon is considered rude, and touching another person´s daemon (save from very special cases like with really involved couples or family) is the biggest taboo in this culture, akin to rape and torture. Lastly, as the daemon is one´s soul, they are physically bound to their humans; stretching separating beyond that distance (commonly short, but varies from person to person) causes a sensation of physical pain referred to as "the pull". However, there are procedures to separate a person from their daemon, Separation (which involves a gradual stretching of the bond by walking though a space the daemon can´t cross in) and Severing (an aggressive mutilation of the bond, often results in the subject´s death).

**But you´re not dead, not as long as your soul remains unbroken**

**1**

No one really remembers when it happened, but everyone knows they used to call them by a different name before they settled on the one they use nowadays.

Maybe it was a way to detach themselves, to turn them even more into monsters than they already were. The word came from Hollywood movies, even though movie zombies were still _whole,_ with bony or dismembered creatures dragging themselves behind them. The term hadn't been so accurate then (or more precisely, the movies had been the ones mistaken), but it worked.

Calling them Severed makes them victims, after all, and no one wants to think of them as such when they sink their bloody fingers (they usually chew the nail to the root) into your daemon and bite down on them.

* * *

Tony wakes up when a boot connects softly with his side, and he groans.

"Really? I just lay down!"

The room is still dark as fuck, so he has to guess on who the silhouette is, at least until they speak.

"I know. I'll take your watch tonight." And sure enough, now that he hears Steve's voice he can see the faint outline of Magna's crooked back, shuffling around at the back of the room. "Natasha says a small horde is closing down on us."

He groans again, and rubs his eyes with the heels of his palms. "Fiiiiine. You heard the man, Cole"

"She's way ahead of you" Steve answers with a chuckle. Tony strains his eyes a bit more and he thinks he sees the gleam of her greenish eyes coming from somewhere close to the plank-covered window. He rolls his eyes. How can his daemon be such a morning creature when he's anything but?

Before he rises, he stretches a hand to pat next to him, but it only touches the cold, dusty floor. She's not there. Of course. Steve pretends he didn't see it, and he pretends he didn't see him looking.

They walk out together, Cole walking between Magna's paws in a way that makes one wonder whether she wants physical contact with the bigger daemon or she's just trying to make her trip. Honestly, it could be any of those.

They come out on the second level, and they're momentarily blinded by the morning's gray light when they step out onto the balcony, where Thor's keeping an eye on the incoming horde. True, it's not as big as some of the ones they've encountered, but it moves fast.  
Thor's eagle daemon is perched on his shoulder, watching everything in a startling silence, compared with her human.

"The others?" Steve asks sending a quick look around. Thor points to the neighboring building, and they notice the window just across where they're standing is broken.

"Clint and Natasha went in to check it was safe"

Just when Tony's about to ask about Bruce, he hears a muffled conversation through his bond with Cole, and she comes into view not a second later, sitting on the metal sheet strapped to Ashwa's back.

"Good morning" Bruce greets them mid-yawn, and smiles at Tony's annoyed face. "I take it you didn't get your beauty sleep?"

"I want a statistic study, somehow we always get the sudden hordes when I just pulled an all nighter. Every. Single. Time" He complains

"I can carry you, if you're so tired"

Tony looks in time to see Thor's amused grin and he pretends to swoon into his arms.

"Now this is a real gentleman, you both should learn something from Thor"

"Thor is the man we all aspire to be" Steve chuckles. Magna's ears rise, and Lys flutters down to land on the railing, making them all focus on the broken window.

Not a minute has gone by when they hear flapping wings and Apolla perches carefully amongst the broken glass.

"Clear?" Magna asks, standing on her hind legs to look at Apolla. The daemon nods and looks back, signaling the return of her human.

"Nat's checking for a way into the next building, come on." He brushes the window clean of broken glass and extends his hands. Bruce has already finished untying the metal sheet from Ashwa's back, and Thor helps him push it over the railing until Clint can grab the other end and secure it on the window frame.

Ashwa climbs first, as always, walking carefully over the makeshift catwalk and waiting until Clint backs down to jump down. Bruce is already on behind her, waiting just long enough for his daemon to take her weight off the platform before crossing himself.

Tony tries to make as little noise as possible as he climbs over the railing. If the zombies notice them escaping even before they've broken into the building they'll be worse off than when they started. He motions for Cole to climb up after him, but she pretends to be very busy looking down at the street, and Steve laughs when he rolls his eyes. His fucking soul is a _brat_.

Thor walks across with Lys perched on his shoulder again to avoid any noise, and Steve follows soon after. They pull the metal plank (apparently Magna has stated she feels less secure walking over it) and make a wide berth.

Cole jumps first, landing gracefully on Tony's waiting arms, and then Magna, and her huge paws make no noise when she touches down on the dusty floor before her human.  
They can already hear the zombies scratching at the building doors and Clint gives them a silent signal before walking down the hallway.

Natasha is waiting on the roof, and she looks like a movie star, profiled against the rising sun with her beautiful daemon perfectly still at her side.

"Did you find something?" Clint asks as Apolla circles over their heads.

"The roofs are close enough for us to get a few blocks on them." She tells them. "We'll have to make sure our exit building is clear, but it's our best choice." She looks at Steve, but he doesn't contradict her. He never does when it comes to this.

Below them, the broken city looks almost beautiful under the light of dawn.

* * *

Darcy stirs in her sleep, and the bulk that is her daemon squirms under the blanket.

Jane sighs, and unwraps her own thin sheet to drape it over her friend. She taps on the window and Aster's voice is almost immediately in her mind.

_'There's nothing out here. Is her fever still up?'_

_'A bit, yes... I'm thinking we should drive into town before it gets worse.'_

_'How are we on fuel?'_

_'We should be fine, but I still hope we find a place to restock on the way.'_

_'Let's hope'_ He answers, and Jane smiles. It's been so long since her daemon stopped being unrealistically cheerful, and he thanks God for it. She hasn't been in the mood for deceptions and not getting her hopes up goes a long way to never be disappointed.

When Darcy wakes up it's already morning, and Jane sits Selvig's old rifle down on the floor before she stands and pours her a mug of warm tea from the kettle on the electric stove.  
Darcy doesn't speak until after she's drunk half of it; her throat must still be sore.

"Where are we?" She asks. Vita pokes his furry head out of the blanket and scurries into her lap.

"Where you fell asleep last night. I thought you needed the rest. But I talked to Aster, and we both think it's time for a break in. Your fever has just been going up and I'm worried."

"Do we have enough fuel?"

"Yes. How do you feel about driving? If you drop me right in front of a drugstore it shouldn't take me more than a couple of minutes."

"Are you suggesting you're going alone?" The reproach comes not in Darcy's voice, but in Vita's rich, deep tones. His big brown eyes burn into her and make her feel absolutely guilty.

"I'm going with Aster. I'll be fine." And it's weird and all that she's talking directly to her friend's daemon, but it's been so long they've all gotten used to it. She loves Vita almost as much as she loves Aster, and by the way Darcy tears the crusts of her sandwiches and saves the crumbs on a plate even though she's always going on and on about how birds give her the creeps, she knows the feeling is mutual.

However, it's all moot in the end, because for all Darcy tries convincing her it's not safe, she's obviously not getting any better, and Jane won't lose her. Not to zombies, not to pneumonia. Just no, ok? If she has to pry the medicine from a zombie pharmacist's cold fingers then so be it.

The RV starts on the first try, and they're off.

* * *

They're spending the night under a bridge.

It's not as bad as it sounds, for some reason the zombies tend to avoid running water and the constant murmur of the current soothes him and helps him relax.

They're all sleeping and he focuses on her.

She's beautiful, he's never been one to deny that. When they were younger, with clumsy big feet and unsettled souls, Thor often teased him about it and asked when he'd ask her out in mock tones of increasing aggressiveness, until he finally caught on with what everyone else already knew and asked her out himself.

Her Jano sleeps at her side, his enormous head rested on her belly that rises and falls softly as she breathes. A stray black strand rests across her forehead and he remembers when he was a teen, and all the hours spent wishing he was her, long before he found out what Sterk's name meant and understood he didn't need a war horse daemon to prove a point. Sometimes he still wonders if she ever wished she was like him.

He knows she didn't.

But it's nice, to think you weren't the only one to doubt your choices when the path became too hard.

He reaches to brush the strand aside, and her eyes are open at once and much too sharp on his face for her to have been sleeping.

They stare at each other for what feels like eternity, and it's at moments like these that he's reminded they're not friends. Just two strangers brought together by the wish of finding the one they love the most in the midst of this disaster.

"I can keep watch if you're tired." She offers in a whisper, even though Volstagg's snores would have gotten them discovered by now. She's cautious like that.

"I'm not."

"Get some sleep, Loki. If you pass out on us because you haven't slept in days we'll be in no shape to take you with us."

"I know. I don't expect you to." He thinks he sees her roll her eyes, but the sudden cold in his toes as his daemon wades in the riverbank distracts him. "I'm fine."

"What happened to Sterk?" Her question is so sudden he has to backtrack a bit to understand it. "I haven't seen him since we found you"

"I'm still whole, if that's what you're asking."

This time he d_oes _see her roll her eyes. "I think we would've noticed by now, if you had been bitten."

"We just have a wide range."

"Loki, I've known you for years. I know about your range. I also know three weeks is far too much time to be apart from one's daemon, even for you."

"He's close. He's just hidden." She watches him in silence, like she can read him even though they both know she can't.

"Listen, if he's..." She cuts her speech and swallows heavily, as she sends a look to the horse daemon staring intently at them. "Jano got injured too. I managed to kill the zombies before they tore us apart, but he has a scar." She looks back at him, and Loki fantasizes for a moment that there's a glimpse of something in her eyes that has only ever been in Thor's. "We're survivors. The scar is ugly, but we're alive."

There's a voice in his head, laughing cruelly because she's getting _everything_ backwards, but he nods anyways.

"I think I'll take you up on that sleep offer."

He feels her eyes on him, and suppresses the urge to call Sterk to him, no matter she was right and three weeks is starting to feel like a lifetime.

_'I'm sorry.'_ Sterk whispers in his mind.

His daemon's sorrow falls over him like a blanket and he wants so desperately to tell him he has nothing to be sorry for, but he can't bring himself to do it.

He doesn't answer. He hasn't answered in weeks.

* * *

"Can't sleep again?" Bruce's voice comes out of nowhere, and he has to squint to distinguish the dark silhouette pillowed on the darker mass around it.

"Just wanted some fresh air. Wanna come?" He asks. At his feet, Cole takes advantage of the stop and climbs up the leg of his pants and the front of his shirt until she's sprawled on his shoulder. It takes Bruce a minute, but he finally stands up to follow him.

They make their way to the roof in silence, maybe because they don't want to wake anyone else, maybe because they're both thinking of what to say.

Cole's ears register movement ahead, and when they walk past the door with the faint light emanating from it Steve and Natasha are crouched over a dogeared map.

He can't contain the urge to roll his eyes, but he keeps walking. It's none of his business, after all.

"Do you still have nightmares?" Bruce asks first, as they take seats near the edge. Cole hops off Tony's shoulder and on the ground, and her golden fur is painted silver in the starlight.

"Don't you?"

"Not as often as before." The older man shrugs. "Staying on the move helps."

"I guess it does." Tony offers, and then stares off into the sky. One of the stars is twinkling the way her eyes did when she was trying to look professional and not laugh at his stupid jokes, and he feels Cole burrowing between Ashwa's paws. "She's fine now."

"She is."

There's a spare second in which he swears he feels Ichar's fur beneath his fingers, and Bruce's solid presence at his side, the way Ashwa curls herself over Cole when she tenses, are the only things that stop him from listening to the inviting song of the street down below.

Instead, his eyes latch on to a moving spot some streets away.

"... Is that what I think it is?"

* * *

"If I have to be totally honest, I'm kind of starting to lose hope." Steve groans. Half of the map is splattered in red X's and he's getting frustrated.

"That's what I've been trying to tell you."

"Yes, but if I took everything you say to heart I would´ve put a bullet through all of our heads the moment the first attack was over."

"Maybe that would´ve been more merciful." She frowns down at the map and Steve feels a surge of warmth in his stomach that translates into a deep purr from Magna´s throat. And then of course Zorya turns around and slams a paw against her face. However, there are no claws involved and he takes it as a sign to move to her side of the table.

"There must be a settlement." He whispers. "You can´t be trying to tell me you honestly think we´re the only survivors."

"It would be just our luck."

"Don´t say that." His hand hovers an inch over her shoulder. "We´re alive."

"For all the good it does us."

He sighs, and he frankly wishes this side of her came out more often and in front of more people, because he doesn´t seem to be enough to reassure her. He wonders if Clint still even tries or if he´s given up long ago.

In all honesty, he doesn´t remember how he earned this honor, why is it that he´s allowed to see her when she´s tired of being a warrior, when others can´t. Whatever the reason, he treasures the moments as much as he´s troubled by them.

"Times are rough, but nothing lasts forever, Natasha." He mutters as he lets his hand brush her shoulder, and sighs in relief when she doesn´t shrug it off. "I promise."

"Do you, now?" She looks up at him, her full red lips curved in a smile, and he wishes he was worth something, he wishes he could reach that ever present seam of sadness deep in her eyes, if only to drown in it with her.

Seeing as he can´t, he opts for leaning down into her lips.

However, she´s pushing him away as soon as his lips brush against hers and he hopes he doesn´t look as hurt as he feels, when she gestures pointedly at the door and focuses back on the map.

Sure enough, Tony and Bruce come barging in a few seconds later.

"There´s someone in town." Tony says after he´s composed himself enough.

"What do you mean?" He feels himself tensing, Magna´s fur bristling in excitement.

"We saw an old RV driving with the lights off." Bruce clarifies. "They were driving slowly, we barely noticed them. They know what they´re doing."

"Where were they headed?"

* * *

"Stop here." Jane instructs, trying to ignore her hand cramping from holding Selvig´s rifle too hard. The drugstore is just across the street, and they haven´t run into a single zombie on their way here. She has a bad feeling, and Aster stays silent, which means it's probably right on track. "I´ll be back in a minute."

"Take Vita with you."

"What?" She turns at the sound of Darcy´s voice, dancing on her feet because _they´re losing too much time._

"Leave Aster here. That way I´ll know if you´re in trouble." Darcy explains, and her flushed face is determined enough so that Jane sighs and opens a window for Aster to fly in. Vita runs to her heels, careful not to touch her.

"We´ll be back."

"Of course you will. If you don´t come back on your own I´m going in for you."

* * *

At first the drugstore feels as empty and dead as it had looked on the outside. Many of the shelves are either empty or have been toppled over, and Vita informs her most of the medicines sprawled around the floor are useless, all crushed and mushy.

"We need something for the fever and maybe an antihistaminic." She instructs him.

"Jane."

"Hm?" She spins on her heels and finds that he´s stopped a few steps behind her, at the middle of an aisle. "What´s wrong?"

"I can´t go further." He answers, all droopy ears and hanging whiskers.

She curses under her breath. "That´s fine, stay there. I won´t go very far." People with bird daemons usually have a wider range than common folks, so she manages to walk to the end of the aisle. Still, she can feel the exact moment she finds their limit, and Aster´s presence starts pulling her back like a magnet or a hook stabbed in her chest.

The only remaining boxes there are stomach remedies, so she turns and walks back to Vita. The satisfaction is short lived, however, because she has to repeat the procedure on the remaining aisles.

By the last one, her vision turns blurry almost as soon as she takes a step out of their range, but she manages to identify a brightly colored box, and she snatches it off the shelf as if it´s about to disappear.

"JANE!"

At the daemon´s scream her hand flies straight to Selvig´s rifle and she pulls herself to her feet.

The zombie is still dressed in a blue apron with the drugstore´s logo and she wants to cry because her lame attempts at humor always backfire in the worst way possible.

And that´s when she sees it going after Vita.

She goes into overdrive, her body floods with adrenaline and she slams the back of the weapon on the zombie´s nape. It doesn´t go down (she´s always wondered if they feel any pain at all) but it does turn its attention on her.

"Vita! Go back to Darcy!"

It takes a step back and stares at her like a dog sniffing meat, and it might not be too sentient or too intelligent but its instincts are good enough to tell it she´s half its size and the only thing between them is the thin black stick in her hands.

Its grayish hand clamps down on the barrel to pull her in, and she struggles as much as she can but its pull is too strong, and she loses terrain by the second.

She tries telling herself that she´s safe, that Aster is back with Darcy and it can´t get to him, it can´t harm him. But the blunt teeth and the maddened stare are not a light menace and she knows they´re the last things she´ll see.

Her last thought goes to her best friend, and she wonders whether Aster will vanish when she dies. She kind of wishes he can stay back and keep Darcy and Vita company.

And then the zombie´s head is flying all the way to the drugstore´s entrance.

The headless body convulses against her for a second before falling in a heap at her feet, and lets her see the huge, bat-wielding blond that saved her life.

Her heart doesn´t stop hammering and she snaps her head back.

"Vita?!"

"I´m here." He answers, and she finds him a step from her feet, huddled under the wings of a golden eagle big enough to take a small child away for lunch.

"I told you to go back." She lectures him as the eagle daemon hops away, but it lacks fire.

"I wasn´t going to leave you alone." He says, his head held high in defiance and his tail snapping back and forth behind him in discomfort, and Jane´s heart clenches when she pieces together that he must be stretching his bond with Darcy pretty bad.

"He´s a brave one, your daemon. He had nearly chewed the zombie´s calf off by the time I got to you." The stranger comments with a husky voice and a grin that takes up most of his face and nearly makes his eyes disappear.

The rifle´s metal is cold under her hands and it serves to remind her that she´s nowhere near safe with this man. If anything, she´s in a different kind of danger. So she sweeps aside her first question (something amongst the lines of `Hey are you by any chance a Bernini sculpture come alive?´ ) and replaces it with something much more appropriate.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" She points the barrel straight at his chest.

The eagle daemon shrieks in indignation and flutters to her human´s shoulder, but he mutters something at her, and drops the bat slowly, before he lifts his hands in a soothing gesture.

"My name is Thor, Thor Borson. My friends and I saw your RV and we thought you might need help."

It´s almost a reflex, one of her hands slides down the rifle´s length to rub at the scar on her hip. She hates groups.

"Your friends? Where are they?"

"They must be outside." Surrounded. Perfect. "You´re safe, let´s get out of here."

"Nice." She huffs. Vita stands at her heels and his presence is comforting as this giant of a man walks her to the front of the store.

* * *

"She´s coming." Aster whispers in her ear, and Darcy nods in silence. The RV´s door is unlocked, and if Jane and Vita can somehow slip past the freaking crowd waiting for her at the entrance then there might be a chance for them to escape.

She´s still wondering why they haven´t come and got her out yet, they surely heard her gasps and her grunts when she felt herself being pulled apart from her daemon, and Aster´s desperate cawing not a moment ago.

The front door opens and Jane comes out, followed by a guy that´s even bigger than the bigger-than-big guy already waiting with the group. Where the hell do these guys get the time to lift in the middle of a zombie apocalypse?

The short-haired blond walks forward, and his cougar daemon follows suit.

"Hello. I´m Steve, are you all-right?" He asks, and Darcy can practically hear his amiable smile. She rolls her eyes. At her side, Aster bristles and trembles in anticipation.

"I´m fine." Jane answers, all furrowed brow and clenched teeth.

"That´s nice to hear. We were in this block just a few nights ago, a horde chased us out. When we saw your vehicle we thought on checking on you, sometimes a few zombies drift away from the main group." The cougar daemon plops down on her belly by his side, and stretches her neck to try and touch Vita´s nose with her own, but he takes a step back and nearly bumps into Jane. "... Are you sure you´re ok?" He asks again.

"I am. I just want to get back into my car and go."

"Well, that´s not very polite. My buddy here did just save your life." Another man speaks up. This one´s short, but he speaks with such a confidence that Darcy has no trouble imagining him standing in front of a crowd or approaching her at some bar.

"Thank you. I´m leaving now." Jane takes a step to the RV, without turning her back on them.

The not-Steve-blond makes as if to grab her arm. "Hey, wai-"

"Don´t touch her, Thor." A woman´s voice rises this time, and a small redhead steps forward with a lynx trailing after her. "She´s scared."

Thor frowns, obviously confused, but he stops his movement. The new woman comes to a halt giving Jane a wide berth, and her lynx turns and sits, staring straight at Aster across the street.

"You can leave if you want. Your friend is safe too." She starts. "But they´re not lying. I have traveled with them all for months now. We will not hurt you."

The women stare at each other, measuring the risks.

"We have a safe building cleared out, and enough food and water. You can both come with us if you need time to rest, and you can leave as soon as you feel ready." The woman offers.

Jane looks across the street, and Darcy meets her eyes through the window.

Darcy sighs, nods, and opens the door because if Jane´s going to get kidnapped and killed then she´s going to get kidnapped and killed with her.

The group makes its way to the RV and they climb on quickly, sending wary stares all around as if they´re the ones at a disadvantage.

"Where to?" Jane asks the woman as she sits behind the wheel and Aster takes his place on her shoulder.

* * *

They´ve been walking for hours, and it feels like days.

She winces, when she realizes it´s been months since she´s felt well rested. She looks around at the others and knows she´s not alone with the feeling; no matter how much food they manage to find, how well they try to time the watches, it´s starting to take its toll on them.

Volstagg has lost so much weight he´s almost unrecognizable, he´s chewed his nails so badly his fingers are always at least a bit bloody, and Cariad´s bushy tail is perpetually between her hind legs now. She looks back sometimes, and stops to stare at something none of them can see. She whines once or twice and then makes as if to move towards whatever it is she´s watching, but then decides to go back to her human. It´s always the same, and Sif is pretty sure Cariad´s the only one asides from Loki that actually knows where Sterk´s at. She still hasn´t decided if his need to take care of them all is either sweet or sad but she allows it anyways, because they might not need his protection but Volstagg is a father without children and he ineeds/i someone to look after.

Hogun actually looks the same, a brooding presence with Nad (her name is actually Nada, and they all hate it because it means `hope´ but that didn´t stop the kids in high school from joking that Hogun was so bland his soul was actually `nothing´ and taking his already rare smile away a bit more each day) at his side. He usually keeps close to Loki, since he´s the only one that won´t try to strike a conversation with him, and his apparent lack of daemon seems not to bother him. In theory everything´s fine with him, but she knows it isn´t because he doesn´t meet her eyes anymore and whenever he does there´s something missing, a light that had always been there no matter how silent he was and she fears he´s losing the very meaning of his soul.

Fandral´s change is not noticeable on his person, but becomes obvious when you look at Hir. The peahen´s feathers have never been any different from any other member of her species (they all used to joke that she didn´t need to be flashy, that Fandral himself was the peacock and had just misplaced his tail) but now they look grey and sad, as if covered in a thin layer of dust, and most of her crest has fallen off. She used to preen and check herself out on every reflecting surface they walked by, and now it seems as if she pointedly avoids them. The man himself tries to give off an impression of normalcy, but he jokes and smiles less each day and Sif wants to cry because her friends are strangers now.

And then there´s Loki.

They´ve always been "friends" just for a lack of a more fitting term, and yet when he had stepped bloody and wide eyed out of Thor´s house (she had been alone back then, and it had been the first place she´d thought of going to) they´d decided to stick together. Even now she´s not sure whether she did it out of loyalty for Thor or because she remembers the sickeningly pale child that took on everyone´s shit for having a male daemon and held his head high anyways. It just felt right at the time. They had always kept an eye out for Thor´s little brother.

If he´d looked sick as a child, now he looks like death warmed over. They spend hours walking under the searing sun, but he´s paler every day. He takes the smallest rations at every meal and his cheekbones stand out in such a way that sometimes she looks at him and thinks she´s staring at a skeleton. His silence is startling, and she remembers the days he´d reply with biting remarks at each and every one of Fandral´s bawdy jokes. And over all, Sterk´s still missing. She tries not to worry (as she told him some nights ago, she´d have noticed right away if he´d been Severed) but it´s hard when she looks at this man that´s grown alongside her and that´s now killing himself slowly without even giving them a reason or a chance to help.

So she walks in silence but for the steady clopping of Jano´s hooves, and she remembers. It´s all she´s done for weeks.

It begins with thinking of times when they laughed and drank, when she danced and kissed and didn´t fear for her life every waking second. She remembers the days when she took everything for granted and she loves them and she hates them in equal measure.

She´s become a stranger too.

* * *

**Daemon list**

Steve - Magna (great,sublime), cougar, female

Thor - Lys (light), eagle, female

Tony - Colchis/Cole sand cat, female

Loki - Sterk (strength), coyote, male

Natasha - Zorya (star), lynx, female

Clint - Apolla (Apollo/female form), peregrine falcon, female

Bruce - Ashwagandha/Ashwa (the name of a relaxing herb), bear, female

Jane - Áster (night), raven, male

Darcy - Vitam/Vita (life), otter, male

Sif - Jano (two-faced god, associated with choice), war horse, male

Hogun - Nada (hope), snow leopard, female

Volstagg - Cariad (love), Great Pyrenees (dog), female

Fandral - Hir (charisma), peahen, female

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**


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